Niantic is holding 48 real-world Ingress events across the globe

Niantic, best known for Pokémon Go, will be holding 48 real-life events for its Ingress app in various cities around the world in 2018 and 2019. Like Pokémon Go, Ingress is also a location-based, augmented reality game with a storyline that pits two factions against each other after a new kind of matter is discovered. Niantic announced a major overhaul to Ingress last year and said the refreshed app will be called Ingress Prime. It’ll feature revamped art, design, and storylines, though the company hasn’t specified when that will be released.

According to the Ingress events page, the gaming experiences will be held in locations, including San Diego, California; Vancouver, British Columbia; Singapore; Frankfurt, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; Salt Lake City, Utah; New Orleans, Louisiana; Canberra, Australia; Las Vegas, Nevada; Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Chicago, Illinois. There are different types of events depending on what you’re interested in. XM Anomaly events, for instance, are open to players at any level and last four to five hours including several hours of walking and biking. Mission Day events, on the other hand, involve players exploring their cities on foot through the game, while others will be a mixture of part competitive and part social gameplay. The events will also encourage players to work together, playing through storylines and objectives as they explore cities.

Niantic hasn’t had a completely smooth run with its events: the Pokémon Go Fest in Chicago last year was plagued with server issues and spotty cellular access. Still, the Ingress events look promising, considering that the company previously hosted 2,000 real-world Ingress events since its launch in 2012, and the scale is not expected to be as large as Pokémon Go Fest.